Theme: Wisdom
About the Meditation
Meditation session led by Sharon Salzberg.
The guided meditation begins at 17:11.
For centuries Himalayan practitioners have used meditation to quiet the mind, open the heart, calm the nervous system, and increase focus. Now Western scientists, business leaders, and the secular world have embraced meditation as a vital tool for brain health.
Whether you’re a beginner, a dabbler, or a skilled meditator seeking the company of others, join expert teachers in a forty-five-minute weekly program designed to fit into your lunch break. Each session will be inspired by a different work of art from the Rubin Museum’s collection and will include an opening talk, a twenty-minute meditation session, and a closing discussion.
This program is supported with thanks to our presenting partners Sharon Salzberg, the Interdependence Project and Parabola Magazine.
Related Artwork
The Buddha’s teachings delivered as oral recitations were written down in texts known as sutras and envisioned in images. At the time of their writing, the sutras represented the latest developments in Buddhist philosophy and practice. As one of the earliest and most important, The Perfection of Wisdom Sutra presents the means to comprehend and perfect the essential Buddhist wisdom—that the self is a construct—and develops concepts that became known as the Greater Vehicle, or Mahayana movement.
With the intention to generate merit—an investment of positive karma to ensure good present and future lives—wealthy patrons commissioned artists and scribes to create decorated manuscripts as the physical containers of the Buddha’s words and objects of devotion. It is believed that reciting the sutra purifies the space wherever it is heard, generates positive karmic links with the teachings in the minds of all gathered, and brings well-being and prosperity.
About the Speaker
Sharon Salzberg, cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, has guided meditation retreats worldwide since 1974. Sharon’s latest book is Real Love: The Art of Mindful Connection. She is a weekly columnist for On Being, a regular contributor to the Huffington Post, and the author of several other books including the New York Times bestseller Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation, Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience, and Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness. Sharon has been a regular participant in many onstage conversations at the Rubin.
